Alija Izetbegovic

Alija Izetbegovic (8 August 1925-19 October 2003) was President of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 7 April 1992 to 13 October 1998, preceding Zivko Radisic, and again from 14 February to 14 October 2000, succeeding Ante Jelavic and preceding Radisic. Izetbegovic, the founder of the conservative Party of Democratic Action party, led Bosnia during the Bosnian War, and he successfully fought for independence against FR Yugoslavia. However, he was controversial due to his Waffen-SS membership during World War II, his Islamic fundamentalist writings, and his nationalist ideology.

Bosniak activist


Alija Izetbegovic was born in Bosanski Samac, Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 8 August 1925 to a well-known family of Muslim Bosniaks; his grandfather helped in saving Serb hostages from the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I. Izetbegovic joined the Waffen-SS during World War II, and the Chetniks spared him because of his grandfather's actions. However, the communist Yugoslav Partisans arrested and detained him until 1946 due to his opposition to Josip Broz Tito's regime, and he became engaged in politics after leaving prison. In 1970, he wrote Islamic Declaration, which praised Pakistan as a model for Bosnian society and stated that there could be no peace or coexistence between Muslim and non-Muslim political institutions. In Islam between East and West, he said that Islam was superior as a world view, religion, and way of life, but he also said that it was an intellectual synthesis that included the values of Western Europe. In 1983, he was arrested for his Islamic nationalist views, and he was sentenced to fourteen years in prison; he was released in 1988 due to health problems.

President of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Izetbegovic helped in establishing the conservative Party of Democratic Action when a multi-party system was established in Yugoslavia, and he decided to hold an independence referendum in 1992. With a 67% voter turnout, the referendum passed with 99.4% of the vote, and the Bosnian, Serb, and Croat country gained independence as "Bosnia and Herzegovina". The Bosnian declaration of independence was met with hostility from the Serbs, who formed the Republika Srpska in the north and east of the country, while the Croats formed the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia. The ensuing Bosnian War would see the Bosnians, Croats, and Serbs fight over the establishment of their own regions, and the Serbs carried out ethnic cleansing operations against Bosniaks, killing 8,000 of them at Srebrenica. In 1995, the Dayton Accords brought an end to the war, with Bosnia being divided into the Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serb Republika Srpska. Izetbegovic left the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2000 due to poor health, and he died in 2003 at the age of 78 after falling in his home.